ENGL 21002 / Writing for Social Sciences / Prof. Anna Steegmann
Fall 2019/ CCNY
Ana Miranda
Hey Professor Steegmann, this is Ana Miranda and I’m a freshman at City College completing my bachelor’s degree in psychology. Even though it is early to assess myself as a student, I already could detect many strengths and weaknesses last semester and plan on remediating what I feel is most important like procrastination and time management. Aside from being a full-time student, I also work around 30 hours a week and that’s non-negotiable, so putting time aside for assignments and saying no to many social events is crucial for my success as a student. It also means that certain mindless activities I get to do in the summer are cut down by a lot, like watching TV and other a bit more fulfilling ones but yet not aligned with my time for school, like visiting museums every weekend, reading personal development books and exploring NYC’s restaurant scene.
I have always been a very curious person so when I get interested in something, I research the subject deeply. But as I entered college, this became an issue once I had many essays and long papers due around the same time, eventually, I realized that you need to know when to move on from research, and start writing about it. As far as writing, I don’t feel confident just yet. My self-doubt and anxiety regarding my material will stick around towards the end of the semester when I finally get my grades. Learning how to let go and cut certain pieces of my paper is another factor that robs me of time when I’m in the middle of the process, and it’s something I would like to improve on throughout this semester. I suppose then that my strength lies in saying no to certain things I enjoy in order to make time for school and connecting to the subjects, but my weakness consists of not managing my time properly and getting out of “research mode” in order to execute.
As a Psychology major, I understand the value of a class as Writing for Social Sciences, and I am thrilled to start field working. The past fifteen years of my life I have worked in restaurants, which allowed me to deal and connect with people – something I dreaded in the beginning – because of my extremely shy nature, to one of my greatest pleasures as I have transformed from a crippled introvert into a highly functioning one. Because of that, I am hopeful that this class you bring me the practice and tools I need to build and deepen the human connection I am able to nurture in my practice. As a self-proclaimed empath, I believe I can get a lot of valuable experiences from this course and I am looking forward to it.
So far, I have been enjoying the readings in the class and excited for the assignments, which may be affected a few weeks down the road, once I start “getting my hands dirty” with field working, but I prefer not to think that far ahead and just take it a day at a time. Even though I technically do not have time to read my books of choice, I am always pleasantly surprised with the readings my classes provide. They are usually books or stories with a deep exploration of human beings from different perspectives and in ways I would not expect sometimes, like my photography class last semester where I learned so much about empathy (my favorite subject to study about), and with that I get to become a well-rounded student, citizen and future professional.
Overall, my college experience has been a great one, full of challenges and “mirrors” that allow me to perform self-reflection and grow as a human being. From the glimpse I got of all the classes I picked for this semester, it seems that I intuitively made great choices and I intend to make connections between them, as I did last semester, and that is the one thing I enjoyed the most, although I still can’t figure out why. Either way, I look forward to learning everything I can while managing and deciphering anxiety and how to perform at a great level.
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